The 2017 VMAs Garnered The Lowest Ratings In MTV History

If it felt like there was less buzz, less conversation and less memes coming out of this year’s MTV VMAs there was a very good reason for it. According to the Associated Press, the 2017 iteration of the decade’s old award show was the least-watched one in its history. After tallying everything together, the VMAs notched just 5.68 million viewers across 10 different networks on Sunday night.

While that number may seem high when stacked against most major programming, its a bad sign for MTV as it marks the fourth year in a row that the network has seen a decline in the crown jewel of its annual calendar. According to the Nielsen company, 6.5 million people tuned into the program back in 2016, while 9.8 million watched just the year before that. Just 15 years earlier, when MTV was at its zenith, 11.9 million people viewed the VMAs when it was broadcast on a single channel only.

There are a number of factors that could have fed into the decline in viewership. It certainly didn’t help that they were counter-programmed against the season finale of Game Of Thrones, the absolute biggest television show in the world. Also, the lack of star-presence, especially when compared to year’s past might’ve hurt its potential to draw larger ratings. Whatever the reason may be, these new, lower numbers aren’t exactly the best sign for the show going forward.

Yeah videos are still a huge thing. YouTube is the destination for those these days though, not MTV obviously. Not even sure why they award musicians anymore, since mtv has totally dropped it’s music aspect.
YouTube needs to create an award show. They actually pay attention to music. And people flock to YouTube for these music videos. Hell, taylor swifts new video got like 50 million views the night it premiered (uploaded) so they’re still red hot, it’s just not mtv.
Mtv is declining in ratings and popularity all around. The past several years it’s been steadily losing its ratings. And it just continues year by year, and now their most anticipated show of the year that has kept mtv revelant is now suffering.

Katy Perry?? She is not remotely funny. Where’s the rock? Not coldplay or some dumb shit like that they pass off as rock. Real rock. It it not as dead as they try to make it. I didn’t even know who half the people performing were. How about you give out actual awards I mean it is an awards show. I want a show not a bunch of 12 year olds WHO CAN’T SING

I know! They act like Rock Music is gone in this world! But so do many other platforms, everyone is totally neglecting the Rock Music that is out their and a lot of good music is being missed. Ones that truly deserve awards and recognition.
And i also agree with the Katy Perry thing. Not a good idea for host. Plus, the star power absolutely sucked

As someone else mentioned, a big reason is because people have cut cable. People are now watching their programs via streaming services (netflix, hulu) or just finding it online. For example, I didn’t watch the VMAS but I did go online and searched for the live performances, watched those straight from the internet.
And im sure many others did the same…
Heck, mtv uploaded all the performances via their YouTube channel. AND everyone knows this happens so they just wait until the day after the show and just search online for the performances. Those are really the main thing people tune into the VMAS for. Performances. And maybe a couple awards, like video of the year or best new artists etc.
In short, theirs just no reason to sit through an entire awards show these days, with all the loads of commercials, when you can just go online the next day and find the important pieces. Easier.
That’s got to be a huge reason in decline. Every show, and even networks in general are all seeing huge rating declines. This isnt going to work much longer. Give it a decade and their will no longer be tv the way it is and has been. It’ll be streaming services , direct TV has already jumped on board and came out with their own Internet service for watching live TV. And a few other popular services.. Sling, Youtube has a live TV service and even playstation!
It’s changing…
Another reason for this year in particular is the lack of stars. No one was their and the ones who were, I didn’t recognize half of them. The big names sat this one out and that’s certainly not gonna help with ratings.
And just a variety of other reason, like this article mentioned, hello… it was the Game Of Thrones finale!

TONS of people still watch television. Ask the NFL, Walking Dead, Game of Thrones, etc. Just because the viewership isn’t what it was in the 90s doesn’t mean its non-existent. Another decade and no TV? Unless Netflix buys LITERALLY every show and prdouces it themselves, that is happening. No one wants to wait 9 months after the premiere to see the new episode of Walking Dead, GOT, etc.